I went to the newspaper archives on campus and found "The Boston Gazette and Daily Journal" dated from 1870-1890, somewhere in there. Anyway I didn't find anything on the scandal but it was full of political current events that would have been relevant to Brown. I didn't get a chance to print any (left my ID card at home) but after doing further research I found a more specific date for the suicide of Fanny Apthorp (the girl on which this novel is based). She killed herself in August of 1788. So my plan is to go back and search for this as well as print some of the articles that relay important political breakthroughs. I have a scanner so I can post them once I get my hands on them.